Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
FORMER Information minister Jonathan Moyo,
who was also a Zanu
PF politburo member, has made startling revelations
about the ruling party's
power struggle exposed by the dramatic Tsholotsho
episode.
Moyo's astonishing disclosures come at a time when
the fight to
succeed President Robert Mugabe is
intensifying.
The succession battle is threatening to split
Zanu PF as senior
officials contemplate breaking away to wrest control of
state power from
outside the party.
In an article this
week (See "Opinion" section), Moyo divulges
graphic details of the
Tsholotsho saga which he says was part of a major
effort to reform Zanu PF
from within to save it from possible electoral
defeat.
Moyo said the Tsholotsho Declaration was part of an intricate
web of events
around the succession issue which played themselves out in
party structures.
This included issues like the appointment of a Zanu PF
reform committee in
2000 and a succession committee in 2003 to deal with the
party's damaging
leadership wrangles.
Attempts by senior Zanu PF officials
linked to the Solomon
Mujuru faction to force Mugabe to resign at the
party's December 2001
special congress in Victoria Falls and to manoeuvre
Joice Mujuru to become
party commissar after the death of Border Gezi were
also part of the power
struggle, he said.
There were also
efforts by MPs at a Zanu PF central committee
meeting in 2002 to move a
motion of no confidence in Mugabe, he added.
Moyo said the
Tsholotsho Declaration was crafted by a committee
of provincial chairmen and
governors under the chairmanship of Zanu PF
commissar Elliot Manyika at
three meetings.
The first two meetings were held in Harare on
August 16 and 23,
2004 and the third one, which endorsed the declaration, in
Mugabe's home
area of Zvimba on August 30 ahead of the party's congress in
December.
"The first meeting of Zanu PF provincial chairmen
and governors
that specifically deliberated on the principles of the
Tsholotsho
Declaration, chaired by Manyika, took place in Harare on August
16, 2004. A
week later on August 23, 2004 another meeting was again held in
Harare,"
Moyo said.
"During the August 23 meeting seven
provinces, except
Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Harare, voted
for the Tsholotsho
principles. A final meeting was held in Zvimba, President
Mugabe's home
area, on August 30, 2004. At this crucial meeting the vote for
the
declaration increased from seven to eight provinces after Chen
Chimutengwende, as chairman of Mashonaland Central, added his
vote."
Moyo said from that point on, the then Zanu PF
administration
secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa was clearly gliding to power
until his plan was
scuttled by an emergency politburo meeting held on the
same day as the
Tsholotsho meeting on November 18, 2004. The politburo
amended Zanu PF's
constitution "unlawfully" to facilitate Mujuru's rise, he
said.
John Nkomo and Nicholas Goche, he said, sabotaged
Mnangagwa's
plan by "misleading" Mugabe about the Tsholotsho
principles.
Moyo is suing Nkomo for defamation over the
Tsholotsho saga.
Moyo says the Tsholotsho Declaration had
four principles,
including that the top four Zanu PF positions - president,
two
vice-presidents and chairman - "should reflect Zimbabwe's regional
diversity
and ethnic balance among the four major ethnic groupings, Karanga,
Manyika,
Zezuru and Ndebele", among other things.
This is
why in terms of the Tsholotsho grand plan, after the
2004 congress, Zanu
PF's top leadership would comprise Mugabe, Mnangagwa,
then Women's League
chair Thenjiwe Lesabe and Chinamasa. Moyo said the
Tsholotsho Declaration
was communicated to Mugabe through party structures.
"There
was nothing clandestine or sinister," he said.
However,
things started going wrong for Mnangagwa in September
when Mujuru's camp,
outmanoeuvred in the early stages of the power struggle,
started moves to
outflank the Mnangagwa faction, he said.
Moyo said a week
before the Zanu PF Women's Congress on
September 2, 2004, the Mujuru camp
convened a meeting in Beatrice with
officials from the three provinces which
had opposed the Tsholotsho
principles on August 23 to "throw spanners at the
works".
Mugabe and his wife Grace played a key role in
supporting Mujuru's
candidacy, Moyo said. He said after the death of
Vice-President Simon
Muzenda there were many succession meetings by both
factions in such places
as Beatrice, Ruwa, Mazowe, Masvingo, Gweru, Kwekwe
and Harare.
Moyo's narration covers events spanning a period
of four years.
The 2000 reform committee comprised Nkosana Moyo, Patrick
Chinamasa, Olivia
Muchena, David Parirenyatwa, the late Moven Mahachi and
Moyo but its
recommendations on structural reform were
rejected.
The succession committee had Solomon Mujuru, Sydney
Sekeramayi,
Nkomo, Obert Mpofu, Didymus Mutasa, Chinamasa, Stan Mudenge, the
late Josiah
Tungamirai, Manyika and Goche as its members. But it was
disbanded after a
Zimbabwe Independent story about its
infighting.
The campaign for reform followed the opposition
MDC's near-shock
victory in the 2000 general election and gathered pace
after the disputed
presidential poll in 2002 and calls for a "Final Push" in
2003. Moyo said
the "Final Push", even though it failed, shocked Zanu PF
into inter-party
talks with the MDC after the stalled dialogue facilitated
by South Africa
and Nigeria.
He said some Zanu PF MPs,
who included former Zvishavane
legislator Pearson Mbalekwa, "came within a
whisker of moving a no
confidence motion against Mugabe at a Zanu PF central
committee after the
2002 disputed presidential election in favour of an
otherwise reluctant
Simba Makoni".
Moyo said after the
November 18, 2004 politburo meeting,
Chinamasa, who read out Mnangagwa's
speech in Tsholotsho the same day, six
provincial chairmen and other top
party officials gathered at the Rainbow
Hotel in Bulawayo to restrategise.
He said they were angry but decided
against defying the
politburo.
A few days later Mugabe made it clear he wanted
Mujuru. This,
Moyo said, was after Goche, who controlled the state
intelligence service,
convinced Mugabe to believe the Tsholotsho Declaration
amounted to an
attempted palace coup.
Mugabe told him at
a meeting on February 17 last year that if
Tsholotsho had succeeded he would
not have accepted the outcome.
Zim Independent
THE
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction led
by Arthur
Mutambara met with South African President Thabo Mbeki at his
Union
Buildings offices in Pretoria last week to discuss the current
Zimbabwean
crisis.
Diplomatic sources said the MDC team - comprising
Mutamabara,
deputy leader Gibson Sibanda, secretary-general Welshman Ncube
and deputy
secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, met Mbeki for
more than
two hours. Mbeki has been involved in the Zimbabwe issue since
2000 although
he appeared recently to have washed his hands of
it.
"Mbeki met the MDC last Thursday and they discussed the
state of
the opposition and other issues in relation to Zimbabwe's political
and
economic problems in which South Africa has an interest," a senior
diplomat
said yesterday.
"The meeting was part of Mbeki's
efforts to help Zimbabweans to
find a solution to their
challenges."
It was the first time the MDC group has met
Mbeki since
Mutambara became its leader in February. Mbeki had last met
Sibanda and
Ncube in October following the MDC split over the senate
election.
Sources said Mbeki was happy with Mutambara's
attempt to
"rebrand" the MDC to shed its alleged "Western puppet image"
which
discouraged many African governments from supporting its
agenda.
"Mutambara told Mbeki his faction was Pan-Africanist,
anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and supported regional and African economic
integration as well as Nepad, and he was very pleased," a source
said.
"Mutambara also said his political allies in Africa
included the
ANC, PAC, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party. He said
he had
nothing to do with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and its leader Tony
Leon.
Mbeki liked it."
Mutambara told a public meeting in
Harare on Tuesday evening the
ANC and its alliance partners were his
faction's political allies. He said
South Africa's main opposition, the DA,
was not his ally.
Founding MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who
now leads the other
faction, refused to attend last October's meeting with
Mbeki. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
A FRESH wave of
farm takeovers hit the southeastern Lowveld this
week with Zanu PF
supporters and land officers seizing five plots with a
read-to-harvest
sugarcane crop.
The farm owners, most of them South African
nationals, have
since appealed to the South African embassy in Harare to
intervene.
In a letter to Willem Geerlings, first secretary
at the SA
embassy, which was copied to the Commercial Farmers Union, the
farmers
alleged that a Chiredzi lands officer, identified only as Mukonyora
and one
Guruvheti and an A2 farmer, one Jambaya, invaded Hippo Valley
Settlement,
Holding 16, giving the owner 30 days to vacate the
property.
"Today, April 11, 2006, the Chiredzi lands officer
Mukonyora and
Guruvheti arrived on the farm to inform Wayne Petzer that the
remainder of
the farm has been taken over and that he has 30 days to get
off," reads the
letter.
"The lands officer and the new A2
farmer Jambaya then walked
around the homestead and stated that: Petzer
could cut one block of cane
(approx 5ha) and then the rest will be taken by
them and Petzer will receive
compensation for the
balance."
The team demanded that the farmer should leave
behind air
conditioners, a borehole pump, a swimming pool pump, a hammer
mill and two
tractors which they had previously seen on the
property.
"On the property there is a main homestead, a
self-contained
cottage and a large separate snooker room with kitchenette
and toilet. The
lands officer Guruvheti wants to immediately move into the
snooker room.
They insist that the current people in the cottage must move
out immediately
and that Petzer should have moved out by May 11, 2006," the
letter says.
The sugar-milling season starts on April 20,
showing that the
farm takeovers are targeted at reaping the sugarcane
crop.
Farmers in the area said harassment of sugarcane
growers have
been prevalent in Chiredzi particularly towards the harvest
period, as some
unscrupulous elements wanted to benefit from the
crop.
"The land officers have a long history of plot-hopping
antics,
especially Guruvheti," one farmer said.
"We
suspect that Guruvheti is still running his other plot on
Fairrange
(Mapanza) where he has placed a relative."
Other farmers
facing problems in the area include those on farms
14, 12, 17, 51 and 13,
who have applied for A2 status without getting a
response.
At farm 13, the owner, Pierre Guimbeau, who
applied for A2
status on March 14, 2006 was surprised to be visited by a Mr
Nyokwe, a
Masvingo province lands officer, on April 9, armed with an offer
letter
dated March 28, 2006, Ref: LLRR 704 and signed by Lands minister
Didymus
Mutasa.
"Nyokwe is transferring from Farm 53,
where he averaged 10ton/ha
last season and has since abandoned this plot,"
one farmer said.
"Nyokwe says he wants to negotiate the crop
with Guimbeau who
has put in all the inputs into this crop."
Zim Independent
Tendayi Mukandi
THE International
Press Institute (IPI), a global network of
editors and media executives, has
expressed disappointment at the slow
progress made by the African Union in
tackling Zimbabwe's poor human rights
record, particularly on
freedom of the press.
In a letter to the chairman of the
African Union, Denis
Sassou-Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville and United Nations
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, dated April 4, the institute said the African
Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) had on numerous occasions
urged the AU to
condemn "Zimbabwe's abysmal press freedom record" but
nothing had been
done.
"To this day, these attempts have
foundered for reasons ranging
from improbable excuses by the Zimbabwean
government, to the AU's desire to
focus on procedural matters and alleged
reporting irregularities rather than
human rights abuses," the IPI
said.
In June 2002 the ACHPR sent a delegation on a
fact-finding
mission to Zimbabwe that produced a "strongly worded" report
calling on the
Zimbabwean government to promote a climate conducive to
freedom of
expression.
Controversial legislation
undermining the freedom of expression
was criticised in the
report.
At the AU's third summit in July 2004 the press
institute says
there were plans to discuss the summary of the delegates'
findings as part
of the ACHPR's annual review on Zimbabwe but the decision
was later
withdrawn.
The decision was later rescinded
after the Zimbabwean government
successfully argued that it had not had an
opportunity to examine the
report.
According to the
Zimbabwean government, the report had been sent
to the wrong ministry thus
preventing an assessment of its contents.
After the AU's 38th
session held in Banjul, The Gambia, the
ACHPR passed a December 5 2005
resolution calling on the government of
Zimbabwe "to respect fundamental
rights and freedom of expression" and to
allow a second fact-finding mission
to enter the country but the plea was
turned down.
The
IPI pointed out that efforts by the ACHPR to try and
drive its point home
at the AU summit in Khartoum, Sudan, in January this
year were again
fruitless as the council of ministers rejected yet another
report on
Zimbabwe claiming that it contained "irregularities and procedural
flaws".
The IPI said four years have now elapsed since
the original
fact-finding mission came to Zimbabwe and the AU was failing in
its duty to
uphold human rights.
"While it is entirely
proper for the Zimbabwean government to be
allowed time to reflect on any
report containing allegations of human rights
violations, it is wholly
inappropriate that the AU should allow
transparently obvious delaying
tactics to derail the process of criticising
the Zimbabwean government
abuses," the IPI said.
The IPI feels the failure by the AU
to take action on ACHPR's
criticism of Zimbabwe may be jeopardising the
credibility of Nepad's
African Peer Review Mechanism
(APRM).
"The ACHPR statement on Zimbabwe requires a review by
Zimbabwe's
peers in the AU and if that is not forthcoming, the world may be
led to
believe that the Nepad APRM lacks substance," it
said.
The IPI called on the AU to reassess the Zimbabwean
situation
and to re-examine reports by the ACHPR as a test on African
democratic
institutions.
"IPI believes that Zimbabwe
represents an important test for
African democratic institutions and it is
essential that the AU places the
importance of human rights and freedom of
the press above what appears to be
a deep-seated reluctance to criticise
African leaders."
Zim Independent
IN a move that clearly exposes political patronage,
the
commission running the affairs of Harare has ordered the city's human
resources department to deploy 129 national youth service graduates to
various council departments.
Council minutes dated March
13 show that the commission's
executive committee resolved that council
should recruit the militia for
vacant positions in council
service.
It was resolved that "the acting human resources
director
consider national youth service graduates who do not meet the
recruitment
criteria for the vacant positions in the Harare municipal police
division
for other vacant positions in council service".
Sources at Town House said the militia were initially engaged by
council
soon after the dismissal of MDC executive mayor Elias Mudzuri to
deal with
vendors and street-kids but could not be formally employed as
municipal
policemen since they failed to meet recruitment criteria.
"The committee approves the redeployment of 129 graduates to
vacant
positions of general labourer in various council departments," the
minutes
said.
Following the engagement of the militia in the
municipal police,
residents have complained of the brutality of council
workers. Recently
there have been reports of municipal police in the traffic
unit terrorising
motorists in the city centre.
The latest
incident involved a businessman who was beaten for
changing a flat tyre in a
designated parking area the city centre. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
SOLDIERS deployed at Kondozi Estate under Operation Maguta have
accused
ministers and senior Zanu PF party officials of looting equipment
from the
estate.
Colonel Ronnie Mutizhe, a senior army officer in
charge of
Operation Maguta in Manicaland province, revealed to
Vice-President Joice
Mujuru that the army could not fully utilise the land
because equipment had
been taken by government ministers and party
officials. Mujuru went to
Kondozi last Saturday during her tour of
Manicaland province.
Only 40 out of the 224 hectares of
arable land on the former
flourishing horticultural concern was put under a
maize crop this season.
Sources who accompanied Mujuru on the
tour said she was
surprised to observe that the once productive farm was
underutilised and
demanded to know why.
"Mutizhe had no
option but to disclose that the equipment had
been snatched by Zanu PF
officials, some of them ministers accompanying the
vice-president," the
source said, adding that: "He proceeded to name some of
the ministers who
were later cautioned by Mujuru."
Mujuru was accompanied by
ministers Didymus Mutasa, Munacho
Mutezo, Joseph Made, Christopher Mushowe,
deputy minister Saviour Kasukuwere
and members of the Manicaland provincial
leadership.
Contacted for comment, Kasukuwere who could
neither confirm or
deny the allegations, said he was sitting in his car when
the vice-president
quizzed the army. "I didn't hear the reasons because I
was sitting in the
car," Kasukuwere said.
Efforts to
contact Mutizhe at 3 Brigade where he is based were
fruitless.
Sources said the Manicaland provincial
leadership, which played
a pivotal role in the quasi-government Agricultural
and Rural Development
Authority (Arda)'s takeover of Kondozi in 2004, took
advantage of the
confusion to seize some of the equipment for
themselves.
The looting on Kondozi first came to light when
Barclays Bank of
Zimbabwe failed to recover billions of dollars worth of
equipment invested
at the farm in Odzi district.
Former
Manicaland governor and Energy minister Mike Nyambuya,
former provincial
chairman Mike Madiro, provincial war veterans chairman
Robert Gumbo and
ministers Made and Mushowe had a hand in Arda's takeover of
Kondozi.
"When Barclays' evaluation team visited the farm
to make an
assessment and put a price on the movable equipment, most of it
had gone
missing," sources said.
When Kondozi was invaded
it lost trillions' worth of equipment,
which included 48 tractors, four
Scania lorries, five Nissan UD lorries,
several T35 trucks and 26
motorbikes. Hundreds of tonnes of fertilisers and
chemicals were also
lost.
Even equipped with a High Court order, Barclays failed
to
repossess the farming equipment at Kondozi due to political
meddling.
Sources said independent evaluators who visited
Kondozi to put a
price on the equipment revealed massive looting resulting
in negotiations of
sale between Barclays and Arda breaking
down.
"The findings of the evaluators indicated that most of
the
equipment had been taken to influential people's farms while the few
that
could be accounted for were found at other Arda estates," sources said.
"Tractors, trucks, motorbikes as well as fertilisers and chemicals have been
recorded as missing items."
The High Court granted
Barclays an order to repossess all
movable farming equipment at Kondozi farm
in May 2004 and confirmed it in
June the same year.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
A STORM is brewing
in the war veterans association after a
meeting called to introduce a new
Bulawayo provincial executive at Entumbane
on Sunday nearly degenerated into
a fistfight as supporters of the old
executive claimed bogus war veterans
were being imposed on the province.
Riot police had to
intervene at the meeting to stop the feuding
groups from fighting amid
futile pleas for calm from the chairman of the
Zimbabwe National Liberation
War Veterans Association reorganising
committee, Andrew
Ndlovu.
The meeting, which was called by Ndlovu to introduce
a new
committee led by Thoriso Moyo-Phiri, was also meant to discuss a
proposed
Bill that will change the war veterans association from a welfare
organisation to a security body under the Ministry of
Defence.
However, all hell broke loose when Ndlovu introduced
the new
executive to the war veterans as members queried their credentials
and
claimed that some of them were bogus.
The new
executive was elected in February this year after a vote
of no confidence
was passed in the Themba Ncube-led executive.
Ncube was
suspended from Zanu PF together with six other party
chairmen after he
attended the Tsholotsho meeting in December 2004 that
President Mugabe said
was a plot to block Joice Mujuru's ascendancy to the
vice-presidency.
National war veterans chairman Jabulani
Sibanda was also ousted
from his post and since then the association has
been plagued by infighting.
Dumiso Dabengwa, one of the
restructuring committee members
appointed by President Mugabe last year,
said he had not been briefed on the
latest incident since he was in Harare
over the weekend.
"The incidents you are referring to
occurred when I was in
Harare and at the moment I cannot comment since I
have not yet been briefed.
I can only comment on the matter after I have
been briefed," Dabengwa said.
Members of the association also
said they did not recognise the
new executive since there were no elections
but members were handpicked.
President Mugabe last year
appointed a restructuring committee
that comprises Retired General Solomon
Mujuru, Retired General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, former Zipra supremo Dumiso
Dabengwa and Ndlovu.
Zim Independent
NEW Ziana has blamed government for pushing it to the
brink of
collapse by compelling it to embark on loss-making ventures for
political
reasons and failing to recapitalise it for four
years.
Appearing before the parliamentary portfolio committee
on
Transport and Communications chaired by Zanu PF MP for Makonde Leo Mugabe
on
Monday, New Ziana chief executive officer, Munyaradzi Matanyaire, said
the
decision to increase community newspapers from four to the current 10 as
well as the intended launch of a radio station and satellite television
service had not been made by the board or management but by their
"principal".
The radio station and television satellite
service are meant to
target Zimbabweans abroad.
"There
are 10 titles, not because the board or management deemed
them viable. It
was a requirement given by our principal," said Matanyaire.
"Because some of them are political imperatives we went in fully
aware that
we could not make money," he said.
Matanyaire also said he was of
the opinion that a bid to secure
funding from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
would not succeed because they
would not generate any
profit.
He said when New Ziana unbundled into three business
units
government failed to provide grants in 2005 and this year as
envisaged.
Matanyaire submitted a turnaround report in which
the news
agency said it requires $250 billion to be sourced from the RBZ and
treasury. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe's volatile succession struggle has
become more explosive than ever
with the fiercest fights breaking out in
party and government structures
ahead of a constitutional amendment to
manage the issue.
Sources said infighting in the ruling Zanu PF has intensified as
ministers,
government and party officials, and MPs clash over control of the
party
along factional lines.
This comes as Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa prepares to
table an 18th amendment to the constitution to
postpone the scheduled
presidential election from 2008 to 2010 as part of
measures to manage Mugabe's
increasingly divisive succession tussle. Zanu PF
MPs are being marshalled by
party leaders to close ranks over the
issue.
Sources said the succession struggle is fast becoming
a
cutthroat fight with fierce clashes erupting at various levels within the
party and government.
"They are fighting everywhere you
find them," a source said.
"Clashes are now to be found at the politburo,
central committee, and other
lower levels of the party. In government, that
is cabinet and parliament, as
well as in key state institutions, the fights
around the succession issue
are going on."
This week the
ruling party called an emergency caucus meeting in
a bid to quell rivalry
among its Lower House MPs and senators. The
legislators had been drawn into
the vortex of the succession conflict.
This follows reports
of wrangling between Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa and the Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono as well as clashes
between Chinamasa and
Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele.
The Zanu PF power
struggle - which is threatening to rock the
party to its foundation - has
complex scenes, plots and sub-plots
intertwined with the country's political
direction and economy.
The power struggle is being fuelled by
the realisation that it
is almost a fait accompli now - although the
situation remains fluid - that
Vice-President Joice Mujuru will succeed
Mugabe, supported by Speaker of
Parliament John Nkomo and State Security
minister Didymus Mutasa as her
deputies, sources said.
The sources, however, said Mujuru prefers politburo member Obert
Mpofu to
Nkomo as vice-president. Elements from the intelligence community,
on the
other hand, want former Zapu intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa in
that
position.
Simba Makoni is said to have once again vanished
from the
picture, although he remains "Plan B" for both retired army
commander
General Solomon Mujuru's and party luminary Emmerson Mnangagwa's
factions.
Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi is also "Plan B"
for the
Mujuru camp.
To confirm the line-up comprising
Mujuru, Nkomo and Mutasa, an
amendment to the Zanu PF constitution to remove
the clause - inserted on
November 18, 2004 to block Mnangagwa from
outmanoeuvring Mujuru - has to be
made.
The provision
says that one of the two second-secretaries
(vice-presidents) of Zanu PF has
to be a woman. Plans are already under way
to change
this.
Sources said the succession issue also has a new
dimension.
While Mujuru is now almost certainly assured of succeeding
Mugabe, her
chances were being threatened by a fierce stand-off between
Mugabe and the
Mujuru camp. They are at odds over the time-table of the
president's
departure.
Sources said the Mujuru camp wants
Mugabe to quit now, but the
president is riled by any efforts to stampede
him out of office.
The situation is further complicated by
the fact that the state
security agencies - intelligence, army, and police -
are also roped in to
the battle although their loyalty now firmly lies with
Mugabe and nobody
else.
There are also feuding camps
within the Mujuru faction, further
making matters worse.
The amendment, which is being marketed through the setting up of
the
proposed Human Rights Commission, will introduce a constitutional clause
changing the current provision that says if a sitting president becomes
incapacitated or is unable to continue for whatever reason, a fresh election
will be held within 90 days.
Sources said the new clause
will say if the incumbent fails to
continue in office a designated
vice-president will take over for the rest
of the term.
This, as first reported by the Zimbabwe Independent last year,
will assist
Mujuru in her bid for ascendancy. The plan is to ensure Mugabe
goes in 2008
and Mujuru takes over as an interim president, elected by a
two-thirds
majority of both houses of parliament, from 2008 to 2010.
Mujuru takes over as Zanu PF leader in 2009 and becomes
presidential
candidate in 2010.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
HWANGE Colliery
Company's turnaround suffered a major setback
after the coal miner hit an
aquifer, an underground layer of earth, gravel
or porous stone that yields
water, at its prime 3 Main underground mine,
businessdigest established this
week.
Close to US$160 million is now required to salvage the
situation
at the coal miner, whose planned rights issue last year to raise
cash
equivalent to US$80 million for capital equipment hit a brickwall after
one
of the major shareholders, British tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten,
demanded
that the company seek funds offshore since the projects required
foreign
currency.
Hwange's managing director, Godfrey
Dzinomwa, told
businessdigest at the group's analysts briefing recently that
Hwange was now
engaged in talks with foreign bankers associated with some
shareholders to
raise enough cash for offshore purchases of equipment and
machinery.
There has been speculation that Van Hoogstraten
was spearheading
the talks between Hwange and the foreign
banks.
The production problems at the colliery have cast a
pall on the
coal supply situation in the country, with sources indicating
that
industrial operations as well as agricultural processes had already
started
feeling the pinch from inadequate coal supplies.
Sources indicated that production at the 3 Main mine had been
halted, and
the company was now pinning its hopes of a new opencast mine
called Chaba,
hurriedly opened over a month ago to curtail a crisis.
Sources indicated that the situation at the colliery company was
dire, with
a complete replacement of antiquated equipment required.
The
3 Main mine had been built using old equipment from the
closed M Block Mine.
Chaba, for which the government had given Hwange the
directive to seek
foreign partners to raise foreign cash for capital
equipment, had also been
opened using old, disused equipment from the closed
mine after failing to
attract reputable foreign investors.
Chaba requires close to
US$40 million for the purchase of
minimum equipment to start meaningful
operations.
As it were, sources indicated, the old equipment did
not
guarantee efficient mining operations.
Sources said
as a result of the closure of the 3 Main Mines,
Hwange had moved mining
operations over 20 kilometres away from the
processing plant. Mining had
been taking place within five kilometres of the
processing
plants.
The situation had been compounded by the fact that
only five
haulage trucks were operational. Fifteen others had been grounded
because of
lack of imported spare parts.
In a notice to
stakeholders in February, Hwange marketing
manager Clifford Nkomo said the
company had "experienced unforeseen
breakdowns in its haulage equipment,
which were aggravated by the heavy
rains, during the month of January
2006".
He said orders for the acquisition of new equipment
had been
made "which should be received during the second quarter of the
current
year".
He said Hwange would open Chaba, an
"opencast mining area whose
reserves are shallower than current workings,
and can be accessed faster and
at a more favourable
cost".
"Given the above measures, we would like to assure our
valued
customers that coal production is not only expected to normalise
shortly,
but to increase to levels which exceed national demand in the
medium term,"
Nkomo said.
But industry sources said major
industrial firms had already
started importing coal from Botswana and South
Africa, but indicated the
Winter Wheat crop was likely to suffer because of
inadequate coal supplies
to Zesa.
The 3 Main mine had
been built using old equipment from the
closed M Block Mine. Chaba, for
which the government had given Hwange the
directive to seek foreign partners
to raise foreign cash for capital
equipment, had also been opened
using
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
CASH-STRAPPED
power utility Zesa will have to fork out $2
trillion to pay back investors
for Megawatt bills it issued to the market
over a fortnight
ago.
The 180-day tenor bills, issued on March 29 to raise
$500
billion to finance power imports and coal purchases, were slightly
oversubscribed.
The interest charge on the bills amounts
to $1,5 trillion over
the 180-day period.
Market sources
said investors had subscribed for the Megawatt
bills on the basis of an
irrevocable government guarantee after strong fears
that Zesa could
default.
Zesa said the bills were secured by "a sinking fund
managed by
Genesis Investment Bank into which ring-fenced revenue streams
will be
deposited by the issuer".
Market analysts said
the power utility was unlikely to mobilise
enough revenue from tariffs to
pay investors on maturity, raising the
possibility of Zesa coming back on to
the market to raise further cash for
payment of
maturities.
"They are slowly sinking into a dept trap," a
bank economist
told businessdigest. "Technically, they'll default. The
burden will fall on
government to pay for the bills on
maturity."
Zesa recently took flak from Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe governor
Gideon Gono over plans to increase
tariffs.
Gono, in a letter to President Robert Mugabe and
cabinet, said
an analysis of Zesa's domestic debt revealed "glaring
imprudent commitments
through short-term Zesa bonds and Megawatt bills,
which were largely
financing consumptive outlays".
Gono
alleged that Zesa had adopted a "costly super-structure"
swallowing 65% of
its total revenue through salaries and wages at the
holding
company.
Zim Independent
By Jonathan Moyo
AS President Robert
Mugabe's days in office become numbered with
less than 23 uncertain months
before the expiry of his current disputed
tenure that will end his
controversial rule since 1980, the ruling Zanu PF
is finding itself in a
triple trap that is turning its long delayed and now
acrimonious search for
Mugabe's successor into an ill-fated affair.
This is due to
the unresolved consequences of the increasingly
topical yet hitherto
undefined Tsholotsho Declaration of November 18, 2004
whose ghost is now
haunting Zanu PF succession politics.
Because I am one of
those who were intimately involved in the
Tsholotsho Declaration, and
because some Zanu PF politicians and sections of
the media have claimed that
I am the architect of that declaration which
they say was a coup plot when
it wasn't, I believe that it is now in the
national interest for me to make
a full disclosure of what I know about the
content of this declaration and
its wider national implications without fear
or favour.
But first let me explain what I mean by Zanu PF's triple trap.
It has three
components which are: the virtual collapse of the economy with
the present
913,6% inflation galloping towards 1 000% beyond any remedy by
the Zanu PF
government which is now in a policy paralysis; the growing
international
isolation of Zimbabwe, which is now a pariah state that can no
longer be
redressed without a comprehensive programme of political and
economic reform
in constitutional and structural terms; and, the Tsholotsho
Declaration
whose burning fires threaten to leave Zanu PF in political ashes
unable to
turn around the economy and to restore Zimbabwe's international
reputation.
While the first two components of this triple
trap have received
wide media coverage in terms of their content and
consequence, there has
been between little and nothing said to define the
actual sum and substance
of the Tsholotsho Declaration. Yet this
declaration continues to influence
Zimbabwe's political
landscape.
But President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have
to this day
continued to assert and peddle outright falsehoods about the
Tsholotsho
Declaration, glibly claiming that it was a coup plot. What then
is the
Tsholotsho Declaration and why is it stubbornly refusing to fall away
from
the centre of politics in Zimbabwe to become forgotten
history?
The Tsholotsho Declaration is made up of the
following four key
principles that define its political thrust: that the top
four leadership
positions in the ruling Zanu PF - president and first
secretary, two
vice-presidents and second secretaries and national chairman
- which make up
the party's presidency, should reflect Zimbabwe's regional
diversity and
ethnic balance between and among the country's four major
ethnic groupings,
namely Karanga, Manyika, Zezuru and Ndebele in order to
promote and maintain
representative national cohesion, development, peace
and stability while
fostering a broad-based sense of national belonging and
identity; that the
top position of president and first secretary of the
party should not be
monopolised by one sub-tribe (or clan) but should
reasonably rotate among
the four major ethnic groupings; that the filling of
these top four
positions should not be by imposition by the party hierarchy
but through
democratic elections done by secret balloting; and, that the
filling of the
top four leadership positions and the democratic elections
should be defined
and be guided by and done in accordance with the
constitution of the party
to promote the rule of law within the party as a
foundation for maintaining
the rule of law in the
country.
While this declaration was debated and adopted
through the party's
provincial structures and affirmed in Bulawayo following
the much talked
about Dinyane speech and prize-giving day in Tsholotsho on
November 18,
2004, it is not to be found in any written document as such,
even though
Nicholas Goche, former Minister of State for National Security
and Zanu PF's
secretary for security, maliciously tried in vain to conjure
up some false
paperwork not worth the ink on it dramatised by his widely
publicised
embarrassing lie that Patrick Chinamasa and me travelled to
Tsholotsho on a
private plane belonging to John
Bredenkemp.
The reason there is no written document is
because the
declaration was a culmination of a protracted internal Zanu PF
process of
debate, discussion and consultation that started soon after the
June 2000
parliamentary elections in which the opposition shocked the ruling
party
into serious self-doubt by getting 57 out of 120
seats.
Up to now the Tsholotsho principles are still shared
by all
sensible Zanu PF officials and members outside the ethnic coterie
which has
ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 without break. Most level-headed
Zimbabweans
would agree that it is unhealthy to institutionalise tribal and
village
politics as the current Zanu PF clique in power has
done.
The results of such kind of an anachronistic political
culture
and practice are there for all to see.
One
notable Zanu PF response to the opposition feat after the
2000 election was
Mugabe's appointment to the cabinet of a significant
number of individuals
that did not at the time hold any senior positions in
the ruling party and
some who were not even members of Zanu PF. Examples
include Nkosana Moyo,
Samuel Mumbengegwi, July Moyo, Francis Nhema, Joseph
Made, Patrick
Chinamasa, Simba Makoni and myself.
Another equally notable
response was the establishment of a
reform subcommittee by the Zanu PF
central committee to look into the
reasons why the ruling party had fared
badly in the 2000 election and to
make recommendations for the modernisation
and democratic reform of the
party to bring it up to speed with what was
then seen as the changed and
changing interests of Zimbabweans. That
subcommittee was noteworthy because
its composition was made up of people
who were not senior in Zanu PF and
some who were not even members of Zanu PF
at the time. These included
Nkosana Moyo, Patrick Chinamasa, Olivia
Muchena, David Parirenyatwa, Moven
Mahachi and myself.
This subcommittee came up with radical recommendations for
reforming Zanu PF
by transforming it from a party of the past based on
patronage and arbitrary
rule by the old guard led by President Mugabe,
dominated by one ethnic
grouping, to a modern party based on democracy,
merit and the rule of law.
Unfortunately, these recommendations never saw
the light of day as they were
steadily subverted by the dominant old guard
and eventually abandoned as the
subcommittee died a natural death after the
December 2000 Zanu PF special
congress.
But some members of the subcommittee, especially
those who were
co-opted into the Zanu PF politburo at the December 2000
special congress,
kept alive some of its recommendations and pursued them
through their party
portfolios. This started the protracted process of
debate, discussion and
consultation that eventually came to be known as the
Tsholotsho Declaration.
As part of this process, there were
vigorous attempts
spearheaded by some politicians linked to Solomon Mujuru's
camp that reached
boiling point at the December 2001 Zanu PF national
people's congress in
Victoria Falls to pressure President Mugabe to step
down and retire ahead of
the 2002 presidential election.
The same politicians tried but failed to get Joice Mujuru
elevated to the
position of national commissar after the death of Border
Gezi, leaving
Elliot Manyika to scrape through with support from outside
Mashonaland
provinces.
Again, as part of the same debate, discussion and
consultation
process, some Zanu PF backbenchers in parliament who had chosen
Webster
Shamu to lead them and who included Pearson Mbalekwa and Saviour
Kasukuwere
came within a whisker of moving a no confidence motion against
Mugabe at a
Zanu PF central committee after the 2002 presidential election
in favour of
the otherwise reluctant Simba Makoni.
This
process of seeking to internally reform Zanu PF widened and
deepened in the
wake of two unrelated events that presented a common reform
opportunity in
2003: One was the failure of the MDC's "Final Push" campaign
in July and the
other was the death of Vice-President Simon Muzenda in
September.
Even though it failed in the end, the MDC's
2003 "Final Push"
campaign sent shockwaves within Zanu PF by demonstrating
the readiness and
willingness of huge numbers of Zimbabweans to take to the
streets or stay at
home and bring public life to a crushing standstill to
get Zanu PF out of
power.
Some reformists within Zanu PF,
some linked to the 2000 reform
subcommittee that had become defunct, took
maximum advantage of the
shockwaves of the failed MDC "Final Push" campaign
to open dialogue with the
MDC on constitutional reforms against the backdrop
of the failed South
Africa/Nigeria brokered Zanu PF/MDC inter-party talks in
2002.
The reasoning at the time was that because Zanu PF did
not then
have a two thirds majority in parliament and because the old guard
believed
then that there was no likelihood of Zanu PF winning a two thirds
majority
in any future parliamentary election, it was opportune and
strategic for
Zanu PF reformists to engage the MDC and to agree on
constitutional reform
by taking advantage of the fact that the MDC had been
weakened by its failed
"Final Push" campaign and was therefore ready to
compromise while the
dominant Zanu PF old guard had been scared to death by
the near success of
the "Final Push" campaign.
This is
the understanding that inspired the constitutional
negotiations between
Chinamasa and Welshman Ncube leading to their agreement
on a draft new
constitution that remains an important talking point to this
day.
In the aftermath of the death of Vice-President
Muzenda, the
reformists within Zanu PF and others merely vying for political
power for
its own sake became particularly active within the context of the
debate,
discussion and consultation that started after the 2000
parliamentary
election because there was now a key vacancy in the top
hierarchy of the
party.
It was clear that whoever filled
the vacancy would be the
successor to President Mugabe. Between October and
November 2003 a lot of
meetings were held at places such as Beatrice, Ruwa,
Mazowe, Masvingo,
Gweru, Kwekwe and Harare to find a candidate to fill the
vacancy.
The momentum then was with those who favoured
Emmerson Mnangagwa
and the crescendo of his support reached fever pitch in
December 2003 at the
Zanu PF annual people's conference in
Masvingo.
But the fact that the Zanu PF annual people's
conference in
December 2003 was not asked to fill the vacancy meant that
Mnangagwa was
denied a sure win opportunity and other interested parties,
especially those
linked to Solomon Mujuru's camp, were relieved by this as
they got an
opportunity to regroup and live to fight another day ahead of
the 2004 Zanu
PF congress which was certain to fill the
vacancy.
In early 2004 a clandestine meeting was held in Ruwa
by some key
politicians linked to Mujuru's faction to discuss Mugabe's
succession,
identify his successor and design a strategy for that agenda.
That meeting,
aware of the growing sentiment within the party against the
monopolisation
of the position of president and first secretary by one
ethnic grouping and
the need for ethnic balancing, identified Simba Makoni
as the preferred
successor to Mugabe.
A succession
committee to move things forward was proposed with
two representatives from
each of the party's 10 provinces except from
Mashonaland West, Midlands and
Bulawayo which were excluded.
Solomon Mujuru and Sydney
Sekeramayi were proposed as
representatives for Mashonaland East; John Nkomo
and Obert Mpofu for
Matabeleland North; Didymus Mutasa and Patrick Chinamasa
for Manicaland;
Stan Mudenge and the late Josiah Tungamirai for Masvingo;
Elliot Manyika and
Nicholas Goche for Mashonaland Central while Harare was
left pending.
Some of the members of this succession
committee got recklessly
busy and engaged in a number of consultations and
this triggered all sorts
of reactions, some positive and others very
negative, which soon overwhelmed
the committee into inaction after some
crippling questions were raised about
its authenticity and
mandate.
The fact that the committee fell outside party
structures, that
it operated clandestinely and that its composition was
incomplete,
unrepresentative and thus suspect did not help
matters.
By the time of the Zanu PF Youth Congress on July 1
2004, the
four key principles of the Tsholotsho Declaration as defined
earlier had
been widely debated and were now broadly shared within Zanu PF
although some
elements among the old guard remained unhappy with those
principles as
events later showed.
What is particularly
significant is the fact that the principles
of the Tsholotsho Declaration
and their procedural implications were the
subject of three joint meetings
of Zanu PF provincial chairmen and
provincial governors under the
chairmanship of Manyika, the party's national
commissar.
This is very significant in so far as it proves that there was
nothing
clandestine or untoward about the application of the principles of
the
Tsholotsho Declaration on November 18 2004 because it was the
culmination of
properly constituted party structures with the knowledge of
the top
leadership, including Mugabe.
* To be continued next
week.
Zim Independent
It's an insult - and intellectually
dishonest
THIS is what Nathaniel Manheru said in the Herald
recently in
defence of dictatorships and summation of the African psyche:
"Going by what
is happening in Ethiopia and Kenya," he wrote, "it is clear
Africans forgive
their tormentors, sooner rather than later, forgive and
even yearn for the
return of the deposed strongman, than imagining or
inventing totally new
ones, unrelated to excesses that have endured before.
Africa seems incapable
of imagining futures outside of what it has
endured."
That was his angry reaction to President Olusegun
Obasanjo's
decision to accede to the request by newly-elected Liberian
leader Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf to hand over former strongman Charles Taylor to
answer
charges of "crimes against humanity". He said Obasanjo should have
followed
Zimbabwe's example on Mengistu Haile Mariam or Saudi Arabia's
hosting of
what should rank as the scum of the African conscience, Idi
Amin.
I wasn't sure whether he was angry on behalf of the
humanity in
Liberia and Sierra Leone who had their limbs amputated as part
of Taylor's
regional campaign of terror, the humanity in Uganda who were
disembowelled
by Amin and had their bodies fed to crocodiles or on behalf of
the dictators
themselves that he claims their victims "yearn" for their
return.
It was convenient to leave this a moot point because
Ethiopians,
Liberians and Ugandans wanted these dangerous recidivists tried
and punished
for their crimes. Zimbabwe has refused to surrender the butcher
of Addis
Ababa to the Ethiopian authorities. Whatever the reasons for this
posture,
they have contributed to the way we are perceived by the rest of
the world -
an outpost of tyranny.
On Manheru's claim
that Africans love their "tormentors" and are
"incapable of imagining
futures" outside of what they have "endured", one
question should suffice if
he can answer it: what motivated nearly 50 000
Zimbabwean men and women to
sacrifice their lives for Zimbabwe if not that
they were "imagining" a
future as a free and independent people? Can
anything be more patronising
and insulting of one's own race?
This week he outdid himself.
He was angry on behalf of unnamed
patriots over a cartoon done by Tony
Namate for the Zimbabwe Independent,
captioned "26 years of bird flu".
Namate's name, he opined, "is used to
indigenise what at the core is a
Rhodesian thought and view of African
independence. I know and can recognise
self-deprecation when it's presented.
We do not have it in this
case."
An African mind is evidently incapable of such
abstract thought,
I assume. It must be the Rhodesians. Africans are
incapable of imagining a
better future beyond a construct given them by
their oppressor. That
illogical logic then takes us back to a yearning for
Ian Smith's return to
sustain Manheru's thesis!
He gave
the cartoon an outlandish interpretation, claiming
Namate's depiction of the
cockerel questioned the "fact of Independence, not
the credentials of those
managing it". It is like blaming food shortages not
on incompetent farmers
but on agriculture as a science. Even as a metaphor,
how can one possibly
criticise "government" outside those who frame its
policies and the agencies
that should implement them?
Manheru's deceit is further
exposed when it is noted that the
cockerel is not a national symbol but a
party one.
Our Independence came with "Zimbabwe" in 1980 and
the symbolic
expression of that sovereignty is our national flag. Why then
the attempt by
Manheru to excite and incite hatred against the Independent
by conjuring up
false national symbols? Do Herald readers come that cheap?
Why does he
interpret our current problems as a given and not the result of
conscious
political and economic decisions that went
wrong?
The answer is to be found in his strange logic:
Africans are
perpetual victims of a vile colonial past and should not accept
the
consequences of their actions. It is a denial syndrome typically
suffered by
state ideologues.
I was also alarmed by
Manheru's attempt to assume the moral high
ground about who can comment on
who should be a national hero. That is one
subject I believe everybody
should be free to debate without Manheru setting
arbitrary parameters. We
should all be equally free to criticise the
decisions of those who, because
of their seminal role in the liberation war,
think they are
infallible.
Who is Manheru to pronounce the hero's curse over
the bodies of
James Chikerema and Ndabaningi Sithole about their war
credentials when the
rest of us are not allowed to comment? And isn't Morgan
Tsvangirai speaking
to the future that Manheru claims we can't even
imagine?
The 1970s liberation struggle and the current fight
for
democracy amply demonstrate that Africans can in fact imagine a future
better than the past and the present. And Manheru should know that giving
sanctuary to former dictators cannot be counted among the virtues of
pan-Africanism.
However, there is another view of
Manheru's assertion which
yields a brilliant shaft of light that could
illuminate the arcane gloaming
of our political institution. His claim that
attacking government
amounts to a desecration of the "fact of
Independence" beyond
criticism of those who have mismanaged it makes a
hostage of those in power.
It is not their incompetence nor their stars that
are at fault.
The problem is providential. It is the piece of
land between the
Zambezi and the Limpopo that is not amenable to proper
governance. That
should explain why nobody can fire anyone in government.
Similarly, nobody
has a conscience to resign for bungling. It is all a
matter of
predestination.
It is very convenient and makes
perfect sense!
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
THE recent
declaration of a virtual state of emergency in the
economy through the
setting up of the shadowy Cuban-style Zimbabwe National
Security Council
(ZNSC) to run the economy on a crisis management basis has
all but confirmed
the policy paralysis gripping government.
The move - which
reflects serious panic in the corridors of
power - also shows government's
implicit awareness of the potentially
damaging political consequences of the
current economic meltdown.
The ZNSC, chaired by President
Robert Mugabe, will run the
economy on an emergency basis - as in Cuba where
"anguish committees" manage
the economy.
The Cuban
economy is run by a Council of State assisted by such
committees, although
the government has devolved some authority to
ministries and enterprises in
recent years. The state has a major role in
the economy and private
enterprise is limited although the situation is
gradually
changing.
Under the slogan "Socialism or Death", the Cuban
regime
continues to proclaim Cuba a socialist state with an economy
organised under
Marxist-Leninist principles. Most means of production are
owned and run by
the government. About 75% of the labour force is employed
directly by the
state.
Mugabe tried to do this and failed
and now wants to try again,
although this time it is crisis management
rather than socialist principles
that are driving the process. The major
sectors of the Cuban economy are
tourism, nickel mining, and agriculture,
especially sugar and tobacco.
Sugar, long the mainstay of the Cuban economy,
was surpassed by tourism in
the late 1990s as the main source of foreign
exchange.
The Cuban economy suffered a 35% decline in gross
domestic
product between 1989 and 1993 because of the loss of Soviet
subsidies. In
October 1990, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced that his
country had
entered a "special period in time of peace" and that the economy
would
function as if in time of war until the crisis had been
resolved.
This appears to be the mentality within the
Zimbabwean
government. The ZNSC will apparently run the economy like Cuba's
Council of
State until the current crisis disappears, something which is
unlikely if no
fundamental political and economic reforms are undertaken.
Cuba learnt this
the hard way.
In the local scenario the
state security establishment will
effectively run the economy as it
cross-cuts the emergency sub-committees
which have been set up to perform a
rescue operation.
This confirms the view that the Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) and the Joint Operations Command (JOC),
comprising the
intelligence service, army, police, prisons and
registrar-general's office,
now virtually run the country and are involved
in a gamut of issues from
security to the economy.
Observers say the state security establishment has no credible
economic
knowledge, capacity or the means to pull Zimbabwe out of the
current morass.
They say the prevailing situation requires a political
solution and economic
measures supported by the international community.
The ZNSC
initiative only validates the view of a growing police
state in Zimbabwe run
by the state security apparatus. JOC's role has become
more pronounced in
recent years largely due to the failure of civilian
public officials. This
confirms the institutional and policy failures of
Mugabe's
government.
Involvement of the JOC in economic matters will
almost certainly
ensure that the command economy becomes more deep-rooted
again as shown by
the return of price controls last week.
Government bureaucracy is already heavily militarised. Serving
or retired
army officers are to be found in government departments,
parastatals,
electoral institutions and quasi-government organisations
performing the
roles of civilians.
Military rule takes various forms which
include army control
where the generals direct events from barracks,
arbitration in which the
army comes in as conflict managers between
political parties or the
government and opposition parties, and army veto
where the military vetoes
some civilian decisions.
There
are also crypto-military democracies in which it is
difficult to tell where
army interventions begin and end and civilian rule
starts and
ends.
Anecdotal evidence shows the military - through its
retired and
serving officers - might be pulling the strings in civilian
government
issues, but there is still no decisive proof that army authority
has taken
root and is now the basis of governance in
Zimbabwe.
Although there is no discernible military rule in
Zimbabwe,
beyond the manifestations of indirect interference by JOC, what
involvement
there is shows the executive's erosion of confidence in public
officials and
encroachment of the armed forces - apparently by invitation -
in civilian
matters.
While this might serve the
self-preservation needs of the ruling
elite at the moment, it creates
problems for future governments which may
have to struggle to uproot an
entrenched military culture in civilian
government.
The
ZNSC, chaired by Mugabe, instructed chief secretary to the
president and
cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, at a meeting on March 17 "to
establish
sub-committees that will provide technical inputs covering various
structural and sectoral issues".
Sibanda is also chairman
of the newly set up Technical Committee
of Experts which will coordinate
activities of the ZNSC, a key part of the
recently established National
Economic Development Priority Plan.
The Sibanda team duly
formed its taskforces under the National
Economic Recovery Committee at a
meeting held on March 20.
There have been numerous economic
recovery plans since 1991, all
of which have failed.
Recent studies have shown Zimbabwe has the fastest-shrinking
economy in the
world - outside of a war zone. The economy has shrunk by 10%
in 2003, 4% in
2004 and 7% in 2005. Negative growth is also expected this
year.
It also has the highest inflation in the world at
913,6%,
followed by Iraq at 40%. It is feared inflation will soon hit the 1
000%
mark.
Countries reeling from bouts of civil war such
as Sudan, Somalia
and Ivory Coast and poverty-ridden ones like East Timor,
Afghanistan and
Guinea-Bissau have lower rates of inflation than Zimbabwe,
which is not
classified a poor country by the United Nations even with its
current
conditions.
Zimbabwe is endowed with human
capital and natural resources.
This is why the prevailing situation is such
an indictment of the current
system, whose regime has distinguished itself
for being corrupt and
incompetent. No amount of revolutionary demagoguery
can mask this reality.
Mugabe's rule has become costly and
unsustainable. His continued
hold on power is proving to be an active agent
of economic decline, poverty
and socio-political instability. The collateral
damage of Mugabe's reign on
regional economies is also
ominous.
Zimbabwe's rampant inflation is soon expected to
break the 1
000% mark as government continues to print money on a massive
scale to keep
itself in power. After reaching the four-digit inflation
level, Zimbabwe
will plunge into a spiral of hyperinflation. No incumbent
regime in recent
modern history has ever been able to survive such
conditions.
Mugabe has come out in defence of printing money,
a move which
all but confirmed the policy bankruptcy of his government. For
a president
who is supposed to be an enlightened economist - with a chain of
seven
university degrees - it shows how the leadership is out of its
depth.
A study titled Macroeconomics in the Global Economy by
Jeffrey
Sachs and Felipe Larrain B, notes the main causes of inflation are
revolutions, wars, civil strife and exogenous factors, which all inevitably
lead to the printing of money. Printing money increases money supply growth
and hence inflation.
For the US, before the 20th century,
the main cause of
inflation - which peaked at an annual rate of 5 570% and
40% monthly in
1864 - was printing money to finance the civil war. At one
time over 80% of
the total US government financing was from paper money. The
same situation
gripped Europe after wars.
During the
1980s, hyperinflationary conditions developed in many
Latin American
countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and
Nicaragua, and in the
former Yugoslavia. The situation in Zimbabwe is
different from these
countries but the conditions for hyperinflation already
exist. The economic
indicators, unemployment, interest rates, exchange rate
and business
performance, are grim.
Corruption has also reached alarming
levels. Government and the
ruling Zanu PF officials are falling on each
other to strip the economy of
its assets and loot whatever remains. The
officials have descended on the
cadaverous economy like vultures. They have
taken farms, safari companies,
they are looting minerals and now they want
to grab mines.
They are also abusing public assets for
private gain. This has
been openly acknowledged by government itself but
nothing is being done to
save the economy. Rent-seeking behaviour in the
public and private sectors
is also rampant. These issues are accelerating
economic collapse.
The ZNSC will not be able to reverse the
economic decline under
the current circumstances, not in a "thousand years"
as the Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono recently observed in an eerie echo
of former Rhodesian
rebel leader Ian Smith's famous comment on the prospects
of majority rule.
Zim Independent
By RES Cook
I HAVE just seen an
advertisement for an executive director for
an NGO, the Southern African
Network of Aids Service Organisations.
The salary offered for
this post, to be based in Harare, is US$6
000 per annum.
At the interbank rate that converts to about $600 000 000 and to
about $1
380 000 000 at the parallel market rate.
In an unrelated news
item I have just read that "the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe says that an
average family of five requires at least
$35 000 000 every month but an
average middle class citizen earns just $15
000 000".
An
average "middle class citizen" earns $15 million per month
and an executive
director of an NGO based in Zimbabwe will earn in reality
well in excess of
$1 billion per month!
And I foolishly thought that NGOs were
there to selflessly serve
the poor, the sick, and the needy.
No wonder NGOs so desperately defend themselves when threatened
by the
Zimbabwe government - there is so much at stake!
Most of it
presumably the salaries and perks of staff who are
more closely connected in
lifestyle to Zimbabwe's ruling elite of
kleptocrats than to the suffering
masses they purport to serve.
"The poor, the sick and the
needy" are certainly a multi-billion
dollar industry.
It's just unfortunate that "the poor, the sick, and the needy"
don't see
much of the billions - in Zimbabwe or indeed anywhere else.
Zim Independent
Comment
'WE have turned East, where the sun rises, and given
our back to the West,
where the sun sets," President Mugabe told Zimbabweans
on Independence Day
at the National Sports Stadium last year.
He
added: "The hostility we have faced from Western countries in response to
our land reform programme has taught us to diversify our source and export
markets. We have turned East, we have turned to our region and other
sub-regions on our continent. With this support, we have started building
mutually beneficial partnerships that will help us build a strong national
economy, our ultimate goal."
To buttress his point, President Mugabe
visited China in July last year
where his handlers said new agreements had
been secured, including a US$6
million deal to import maize, financing of
the expansion of Hwange thermal
power station and a loan to the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority.
As part of the tie-up China sold Zimbabwe
planes and buses and transformers
to Zesa. Zimbabwe was also granted the
"approved tourism destination status"
to open the country to Chinese
tourists. As part of the plan, Air Zimbabwe
started to fly to Singapore and
Beijing in the hope that our planes would
bring back loads of Chinese
tourists.
The Chinese dream is collapsing as exemplified this week by
admissions by
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority that all was not well on the
Chinese front.
Arrivals had declined 70%, the sharpest decline of any source
market.
That is not all. It has been reported that the planes flying to
the Far East
have been making huge losses of up to US$980 000 every month.
That is the
cost of looking east.
There is no visible Chinese
investment in electricity generation and the
country has a huge power
deficit.
We warned that the euphoria about "looking east" would not
benefit the
country as long as Zimbabwe did not have foreign currency and
was instead
reducing itself to a dumping ground for substandard Chinese
goods.
The government had experienced a similar delirium in 2001 when it
tried to
forge ties with Malaysia. We are still waiting for electronic firms
and
agro-processing plants which we were told would be set up under numerous
trade deals. The much-heralded YTL deal with Hwange power station in 1997
was stillborn.
The reality of trade with the Far Eastern countries,
which we pointed out
early on, was that nothing would come Zimbabwe's way on
the house. The
Chinese, like any economic power, demand international
commercial rates for
whatever services they render to Zimbabwe. This entails
the country
generating forex, which it is not doing, hence there have been
no real
benefits from looking east.
This explains why another Look
East venture - a US$200 million deal with the
Iranian government to
refurbish the Kariba hydro power station - has not
taken off. Zimbabwe
cannot raise the US$30 million deposit agreed in the
deal.
Despite
the bold Look East statements, Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
last year
burnt the midnight oil printing cash he used to buy foreign
currency to
repay IMF debts. Of late President Mugabe has been making
overtures to the
West through talk of "building bridges" with Britain.
The West has set
conditions for any future engagement which are premised
mainly on Zimbabwe
observing democratic norms and principles - a big task
from the current
regime which has never admitted any wrong-doing in
abridging citizens'
fundamental rights.
The decision to look east was based on the thinking
that the Asian Tigers
supported Zimbabwe's disastrous land reform and human
rights policies and
hence aid would flow in without issues of democracy
being raised. Zimbabwe
can be assured of moral support from China on these
"internal affairs". That
is about all there has been so far.
But
despite extended periods of looking at the rising sun, President Mugabe's
government has not been blinded to the benefits of forging ties with the
West. It has put out a US$277 million appeal for humanitarian assistance and
we can be sure China's contribution to that basket will not constitute the
largest package.
It is the usual arch-enemies - the USA, the UK and
other Western countries -
that will show up when real friends are
needed.
Mugabe could soon learn that those who burn bridges usually find
it
difficult to rebuild them.
Zim Independent
By Eric
Bloch
THROUGHOUT last year, Environment and Tourism minister Francis
Nhema,
officials from his ministry and many others in government as well as
the
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) waxed eloquently and enthusiastically
about
the tremendous recovery of the Zimbabwean tourism industry, as
evidenced by
considerably greater numbers availing themselves of the
magnificent
facilities provided by the industry.
So often did they
reiterate their contention that Zimbabwean tourism was
enjoying a positive
turnaround that they soon convinced themselves that that
was fact.
In
contradistinction, those on the ground, being the tourism operators, know
full well that the reverse was the case and, far from an upturn in
patronage, the decline that begun to set in almost six years ago was
continuing.
They were sadly aware that they were selling fewer bed
nights, and markedly
lesser tickets for the diverse activities and flights,
and very much else.
And, just as chickens come home to roost, so too the
truth will eventually
become known. Recently the authorities had no
alternative but to acknowledge
the realities, for upon release of the 2005
statistics it became evident
that the industry had sustained an overall
decline of 49% (and that after
very considerable contractions already
experienced over the previous five
years).
In part the 2005 shrinkage
in tourism was due to fewer tourist arrivals in
Zimbabwe, in part because
many of those who did come stayed for shorter
periods than the average
length of stay in prior years, and in part because
fewer and fewer
Zimbabweans could afford the luxury of patronising tourism.
The rampant
hyperinflation that has characterised the Zimbabwean economy has
very
considerably eroded spending power for most.
More and more are having to
budget far more intensively than in the past,
and must restrict their
spending to absolute essentials. As important as
holidays are, to maintain
and enhance health and as a diversion from the
rigours of daily life,
nevertheless they cannot credibly be justified as
essentials, and hence they
are among the first of budgetary deletions for
those who find it
increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
Insofar as the decrease in
regional and international arrivals is concerned,
the authorities would have
all believe that that decrease is almost wholly
due to Zimbabwe's negative
image, and that that negative image is unfounded,
and occasioned only by the
malicious dissemination of falsehoods by Zimbabwe's
enemies.
The
authorities are correct that a major factor in the continuing reduction
in
tourist arrivals is attributable to Zimbabwe's extremely abysmal image
abroad, but that image has been created by Zimbabwean circumstances,
exacerbated by government's absolute inability to recognise and acknowledge
unpalatable facts, or to do anything constructive to address those facts,
and not by enemies beyond Zimbabwe's borders.
The perception of many
international tourists is that Zimbabwe is a haven
for the lawless, and
therefore unsafe. They read of white farmers being
brutally murdered, as
occurred only two months ago, but very rarely read of
the murderers being
apprehended, tried and convicted.
In contradistinction, they also read
many instances of persons being
arrested on blatantly spurious grounds, and
incarcerated for prolonged
periods of time before, occasionally, being
brought to trial. And they hear
of frequent instances upon which the
so-called guardians of law resort to
brute force, disregarding the
fundamental principles of justice and human
rights.
When they do hear
such allegations, they accept them as fact, on the one
hand because of the
extent of the abuses of power during Operation
Murambatsvina, and on the
other hand because the frequency of the
allegations is seen as giving them
credibility. They are also aware of the
magnitude of crimes against people,
ranging from an extensive number of
carjackings to numerous cases of armed
robberies, and an extensive number of
burglaries.
Such an image is
seen to be, very substantially, factually correct,
particularly because
reports of such criminality are not very rare, but
extremely
frequent.
The second key perception is that Zimbabwe's economy is so
distraught that
it is unable to cater for the normal and usual needs of the
tourist.The
visitors who contemplate travel to Zimbabwe are concerned that,
having flown
in to Harare Airport or Bulawayo's Joshua Nkomo International
Airport, there
would thereafter be no flight to take them to Victoria
Falls, due to a
lack of aviation fuel, or an absence of essential aircraft
spares. And
they are concerned as to whether, if they do reach their
destination, there
will be the flights to enable them to access their
scheduled departure from
Zimbabwe.
In like manner, they are concerned
whether, while in Zimbabwe, fuel will be
available for game-viewing drives
and river cruises, whether the
air-conditioning systems of the hotels will
be operative, or out of
commission due to lack of spares, and how often will
they be inconvenienced
by power-supply breakdowns. They also fear a lack of
access to normal
tourist perquisites, such as camera film.
The
negative perceptions are reinforced by concerns that Zimbabwe has become
an
extremely expensive destination. In part that is a psychologically driven
perception by the wide-ranging usage of three rates of charges by hotels,
safari operators and activity providers, applied according to whether the
tourist is a Zimbabwean resident, a resident of a neighbouring territory, or
resident further afield.
In part the periodical high cost of
Zimbabwean tourism is due to the country's
very pronounced inflation, which
is partially driven by the rates of
exchange in the "alternative" parallel
and black markets (such as fuel
costing about $200 000 per litre, as
distinct from the official price of $22
000 per litre,) while the tourist
must exchange his currency in official
markets, at rates approximately half
of those in the alternative markets.
The costs for the tourist to
Zimbabwe are very considerably increased by the
massive charges raised by
the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Management, who now levy
gargantuan charges for each and every entry into
the Victoria Falls Rain
Forest, and into any national park.
In some instance it is a case of
multiple charges, such as upon entry into
Matopos National Park, and then
prior to ascending World's View. Not only
are there immense charges upon
entry to national parks, but often also an
array of other charges, such as
fees for launching boats on Lake Kariba.
For those tourists who are
motorists, there are other duplications of
charges, such as the levying of
carbon tax upon entering Zimbabwe, and then
$1 000 built into every litre of
fuel purchased.
It is not unsurprising, therefore, that so many decide
that their tourism
patronage should be targeted at Zambia, Botswana, South
Africa, Kenya and
elsewhere, rather than Zimbabwe (to such an extent that
Zambia now
proclaims itself on CNN as "the home of the Victoria
Falls").
Zimbabwe has a wealth of tourism attractions, including the
spectacular
magnificence of Victoria Falls, the grandeur of the Matopos, its
outstanding
wildlife resource in Hwange National Park, Matusadona, the Save
Conservancy
and Gonarezhou as well as Lake Kariba, Nyanga, Vumba,
Chimanimani, Khami
Ruins and much more.
What it no longer has is a
tourism-conducive environment, and it needs to do
something to re-create
it.
Until now, all it has done is to bewail the tourism decline, blame
others
for it, or delude itself that the decline has been halted and
reversed (such
as the now endless claims of one and two years ago that all
the tourism
support lost from Western markets had been replaced with a
tremendous
development in arrivals from tourists from the East (all of 28
000 in 2004)
and that, therefore, tourism was enjoying a recovery and
upturn).
It is time that the facts be recognised, acknowledged and
addressed,
including restoration of law and order, achieving genuine
economic recovery,
containing charges, and then resorting to genuine tourism
promotion, and
powerful publicity evidencing the changes which will have
transformed
Zimbabwe to one of the world's greatest tourist
destinations.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
NOTHING better illustrates the
delusional character of the
regime than Vice-President Joice Mujuru's claim
that "the economy is
beginning to take off".
"We have
noticed how the economy is beginning to take off and we
are saying everyone
should join the recovery train while the sun is still
shining because there
is no reverse gear," she said during a tour of
Dairibord last
week.
Who has "noticed" that "the economy is beginning to
take off"?
Certainly not any economists we know of.
Inflation is inching up to the 1 000% mark, GDP is continuing
its slide,
investors and tourists are staying away in droves while
forex-generating
industries such as tobacco are hitting record-low output.
The same goes for
any other sector you care to mention such as
manufacturing.
So where do people like Mujuru get this
information, invisible
to the rest of us, that "the economy is beginning to
take off"? Very simply,
they invent it. Word goes out from the President's
Office that this is the
message for the month. And everybody repeats
it.
Amazing isn't it? An entire nation run upon the basis of
self-deception.
"The time has come for all our children
who fled the country in
search of greener pastures to return home where the
grass is becoming
greener by the day," Mujuru urged.
Fat
chance. Let's see the children of Zanu PF officials,
including ministers,
return home first. That will give us an indication of
where the grass is
greener!
We noted a significant observation by the head of a
visiting
Indonesian media delegation last week. While the story looked very
much like
one in which Information minister Tachaona Jokonya hoped the
Indonesian
journalists would "counter Western propaganda" by telling the
"true story"
about Zimbabwe, Dr James Pardede, director of Media Partnership
in the
Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information, said the
government
"still needs to convince the international community that
Zimbabwe is a safe
and conducive place for investment".
We were delighted that Jokonya and other officials present,
including
presidential spokesman George Charamba, were able to hear
that.
And how can we get it across to Jokonya that for the
media to be
"pivotal in development" there has to be public accountability?
The
Indonesian press delegation thanked Zimbabwe for its help for tsunami
victims. But have we ever been told how much was raised?
We were impressed by Pardede's title. Clearly Indonesian
officials see their
role as one of media partnership rather than
confrontation!
Confrontation was very much in evidence
this week as the Herald's
Nathaniel Manheru columnist attacked the Zimbabwe
Independent for publishing
a cartoon featuring a jongwe afflicted by bird
flu.
The cartoon by Tony Namate used the disease imagery to
"graphically communicate the newspaper's view of African self-rule", Manheru
predictably claimed.
Since Zimbabweans were foolish
enough to contract it on April 18
1980, he argued, "the only solution is
mass liquidation".
"However liberal one is with one's
semantic range, it is clear
what comes in for savaging through this cartoon
is the fact of Independence
itself, not the credentials of those managing
it."
Manheru has evidently been very liberal in his semantic
range
taking us in one hop, skip and a jump to the doors of mass
liquidation!
Since when has the jongwe been a national
symbol? Manheru
craftily interprets a cartoon on the ruling party's 26-year
record of
misrule, corruption and national impoverishment as an attack upon
the very
concept of a free and independent Zimbabwe.
This
is of course all part of a Rhodesian conspiracy to
discredit the people's
government, we are told.
Isn't this the ultimate dishonesty?
That commentary upon the
betrayal of the liberation struggle by a selfish
and ideologically bankrupt
elite "challenges the essence of (our)
Independence (and) our collective
being as an independent African
people".
How convenient! If you think along these lines then
all notions
of accountability become part of a Rhodesian plot to reverse
revolutionary
gains so the ruling party has no need to explain why
Zimbabweans are today
poorer than they were in 1953!
People who were not fighters, mujibhas or chimbwidos, now have
the cheek "to
excoriate living heroes who today decide who shall lie at
Heroes (Acre) and
who shall not".
So, it is the defence of the "living heroes"
that our writer is
most concerned with. We thought so. He says he "warned"
and "berated"
Financial Gazette editor Sunsleey Chamunorwa last year for
suggesting our
Independence was an act in futility. He can now see what his
editorial
inspired, Chamunorwa is told with a wag of the
finger.
But nobody in the press community is going to swallow
this
self-serving nonsense. Hankering after a lost Rhodesian kingdom is a
convenient myth generated entirely by the ruling party. It is the
self-appointed guardians of the liberation legacy and their betrayal of that
struggle's own hopes and aspirations that Manheru finds an unsuitable topic
for public scrutiny.
Namate deserves the nation's thanks
for smoking out these
apologists for a failed state. It is a state that has
failed its people and
they know it.
Amidst all this spin,
we are delighted to have a statement from
the Swedish ambassador that the
state's claim that Posa is similar to
Swedish press legislation is a "lurid
comparison" whose "source" remained
"unclear".
We think
we know where it came from: the Stalinist ideologues
who deliberately
misinterpret court rulings to prevent newspapers from
reopening. But skol
anyway Sten.
We were interested to read about President
Mugabe celebrating
the 31st anniversary of his "crossing" into Mozambique.
The Herald article
was written in hagiographical terms. The president
recalled "vividly" that
it was on a Saturday when he ascended, sorry
crossed, into Mozambique to
start the armed struggle. Moven Mahachi had
driven him and Edgar Tekere to
Nyarufaru estate in
Nyanga.
Don't we recall Sister Aquina playing some role in
all this? Or
has she been airbrushed out of the story? And the armed
struggle had of
course commenced 10 years earlier. Mugabe had to sit around
in Mozambique
for several months cooling his heels before being admitted to
the camps by a
sceptical Zanla leadership. The Herald omitted these
details.
We are keen to know about the man who "pulled out
his pistol and
fired warning shots" at MDC supporters who were allegedly
attacking a house
in Glen View two weeks ago. He was wearing a Zanu PF
T-shirt, we are told.
He managed to drive off to Glen View police station
where he made a report.
Who was this Zanu PF supporter and
what was he doing with a
pistol? The Herald didn't tell
us.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the police would
not
tolerate political violence and warned that the "long arm of the law"
would
deal with offenders.
The long arm of the law
however has yet to catch up with Joseph
Mwale. Could Bvudzijena please
explain why?
In this age of hyperinflation we expect the
price increases that
assail us every day. But one price hike struck
Muckraker as particularly
pernicious. The company that runs the airport
parking lot has put its
charges up to $450 000 an hour, from $200 000. And
it warns that anybody
parking elsewhere will be clamped or towed
away.
Needless to say, the company, Car Safe, is a subsidiary
of a
parastatal, the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe. So don't expect
any
outcry from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe!
Here we
have a state-related company imposing extortionate
charges upon a captive
public and warning them that they had better pay up
or pay $2 million to
have clamps removed and $5 million if they are towed
away.
Supposing the flight you are awaiting - perhaps
because of
another state company's inability to stick to schedules -- is
delayed, your
$450 000 multiplies every hour. This is iniquitous by any
definition and the
minister responsible should be made to explain to
parliament why the public
are being fleeced in this way.
It was good to see our old friend Chris Mutsvangwa back in the
news,
extolling the virtues of trade with China where he is our ambassador.
China
was "the factory of the world", he said and African countries should
take
advantage of the opportunities arising.
The Herald story then
ran on to praise China without telling us
whether it was Mutsvangwa's views
being expressed or the writer's. It
included this significant paragraph:
"China's loan and its policy of
non-interference has given Angola the power
to turn down an IMF loan which
attaches stringent conditions on economic
transparency, auditing of books
and corporate governance concerning its oil
contracts."
So there you have it. The Chinese will relieve
countries like
Angola of the need to have transparency, auditing of books or
good corporate
governance. Oil revenues can thus be skimmed by a powerful
elite who will
vote for China's foreign policy objectives at the UN. All
very cosy you
understand!
Mutsvangwa said it was about
time Zimbabweans shook off "the
zhing-zhong myth". All the top business
schools were teaching the importance
of doing business with China, he said.
But he didn't say that the Chinese
economy was booming because investors
find it a rewarding place to do
business. Can we say the same of Zimbabwe
which is still locked in the
disastrous economics of Chairman Bob's Great
Leap Forward?
Still on China, we were alarmed to read an
unpatriotic report in
the Sunday Mail that Chinese tourist arrivals to
Zimbabwe had declined by a
massive 70%. Despite Zimbabwe being granted
"approved tourism destination
status", Chinese visitors have notched the
"highest decline recorded from
any source market", the paper reported in a
rare moment of truth-telling.
Instead, tourists were going to
South Africa and Zambia "which
have shown purposeful marketing". This was
the version given by Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority chief executive officer,
Karikoga Kaseke, who said the
reason for the decline was lack of appropriate
marketing strategies and poor
market research.
Yet we
were told that the granting of approved tourism
destination status would
bring us all the foreign currency the country ever
needed because of the
huge population of China. The said status means China
"compels" its citizens
to "visit status-certified countries", said the Mail
helpfully. We think
China hasn't been using enough force for its citizens to
come and enjoy
Zimbabwean hospitality. They have instead made independent
decisions once
outside the national border. The biggest presence has been in
the area of
substandard textile products that have ruined the local
industry. So much
for the Look East policy.
But we have no doubt all this was a
result of poor research and
putting political considerations ahead of
commercial interests. Ask Air
Zimbabwe executives.
Last
week we ended our column with an installment in which an
"alleged lion" had
"mould" a resident of Cowdray Park in Bulawayo. We
thought this would help
the writer of the City Courier story learn a thing
or two. But they have
repeated the "mouling", despite all our efforts.
They have
even added a blockbuster of an intro to another story.
This one is headed:
"Free for all as husband snatcher receive thorough
bashing."
Here goes the paragraph: "Cowdray Park
residents were treated to
free drama when a 35 year old woman was thorourly
(sic) beaten Sunday for
allegedly (?) another woman's husband last week
attacked by her lover's wife
(name supplied). According to sources, the
owner of the husband got wind of
her husband's illicit affair from one of
her neighbours."
PGA. The City Courier is not for students
aspiring to learn
English. Those wishing to pursue journalism as a career
are particularly
advised to avoid its toxic fallout.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent Kahiya
THE World Health
Organisation's revelation last week that
Zimbabwe's life expectancy for
women had dropped to 34 was immediately
seized on by government which
dismissed the statistics but did not give the
nation the correct figures on
the lifespan of an ordinary Zimbabwean. What
a shame!
The statistics from the WHO are emblematic, especially coming on
the eve of
the country's 26th Independence anniversary.
No matter how
much our government tries to deny the fact that
Zimbabweans are now living
shorter lives largely due to poverty, stress and
disease, the evidence
abounds in the high mortality rate from HIV and Aids
and other communicable
diseases due to a failing health delivery system.
Health
minister David Parirenyatwa could have done government a
great service by
telling us what the life expectancy is at the moment.
He did
not and I will therefore rely on figures produced from
international
research to prove that human development in Zimbabwe has
degenerated
significantly during the tenure of President Mugabe's
government.
The United Nations Development Programme in
its 2004 Human
Development report said life expectancy at birth for
Zimbabweans was 33,9
years, representing an index of 0,15. The country with
the highest index was
Norway with 0,99. The report said there was a 74,8%
probability of an
average Zimbabwean not reaching the age of
40.
According to the report, between 1970 and 1975 life
expectancy
for the then Rhodesia was 56. The report also records an increase
in child
mortality of up to 1 100 per 100 000 live births. The number of
health
personnel has continued to decline with the report revealing that
there are
six physicians per 100 000 Zimbabweans. The figure could be lower
now with
the continued emigration of doctors.
I am sure
the Health minister is familiar with the chaos at the
casualty sections of
Parirenyatwa and Harare Hospitals where junior doctors
manning these crucial
points are evidently overwhelmed by the throng of sick
patients. I have seen
patients dying on stretchers before being attended to
and others, barely
breathing, being bundled into cars by relatives because
there is nothing the
hospital can do to assist.
There are the more familiar
statistics of HIV and Aids infection
at 24%, unemployment is above 75% and
inflation at 913,6%. All these factors
subtract large portions of our
lives.
It is undeniable that Zimbabweans are getting poorer
by the day.
Independence Day on Tuesday should be a time for the national
leadership to
reflect on the country's human development instead of the
banal rhetoric on
sacrifices, dedication and commitment of three decades
ago.
We will always be reminded of the "great strides" made
in the
first 10 years of Independence in health, education and
infrastructural
development.
This is all there is now as
hospitals built after Independence
do not have nurses, doctors or drugs;
schools do no have furniture and books
while roads and other key
infrastructure are in a state of decay.
But our government,
entombed in crocodilian political dogma, has
chosen to sing about past glory
and in the process demonstrating a stunning
paucity of ideas to bring the
glory days back when teachers could afford to
buy cars and houses. A
teacher's salary today cannot buy a full tank of
fuel.
Parirenyatwa's denial that life expectancy has plummeted is
consistent with
government's handling of the current woes. The strategy is
to convince the
world, including impoverished rural and urban dwellers, that
there is no
crisis in Zimbabwe. "What crisis?" government apologists have
asked tongue
in cheek.
Then there is another futile exercise to portray
Zimbabweans as
a happy lot because the land reform programme resolved all
our problems.
President Mugabe on Independence Day last year reminded us of
how happy we
are as a nation.
"We have resolved the long
outstanding land question and the
land has now come to its rightful owners,
and with it, our sovereignty as
well," he said. "Our people are happy and
contented and that is all that
matters."
No, what matters
at the moment is survival. Can I challenge our
dear leader to go shopping on
a teacher's salary after the poor tutor has
paid his rent and put aside cash
for bus fare. Happy shopping for our
Independence anniversary.
Zim Daily
Thursday, April 13
2006 @ 12:01 AM BST
Contributed by: Zimdaily
In an
article headlined "Mugabe Secretly Negotiating Immunity
From Prosecution"
published in our Monday edition we quoted WFP estimates of
3.3 million
people in urgent need of food aid in Zimbabwe and that the
figure was
expected to rise to 5.5 million by June. As a matter of fact the
WFP is
feeding 4 million people in Zimbabwe and they expect the figure to go
down
by June. Our estimates on the figures were incorrect. We apologise for
any
damage caused by the article.
Zim Daily
Thursday, April 13 2006 @ 12:02 AM BST
Contributed by: correspondent
By CHRA
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) rejects this
continued knack
for luxury by the City of Harare, particularly where it
regards Sekesai
Makwavarara, the Chairperson of the illegal commission
running the affairs
of Harare.
Last month, the commission chairperson wanted the
City of Harare
to fund the purchase of $35 billion worth of new curtains for
the mayoral
mansion, which she does not deserve at all. She is not Harare's
mayor;
neither does she have the mandate of residents to be at the helm of
the City
of Harare. Only last week the commission approved a move to
purchase luxury
vehicles for the workforce.
The Standard
(9/4/06) reported that Makwavarara is involved in
fresh controversy at Town
House after she requested payment of $103 million
for a decoder and
satellite to be authorised. It was established that she
had a satellite and
decoder installed at the mayoral mansion without the
commission's
approval.
The Harare Commission always bullies residents into
funding its
luxury without providing services that are a top priority to
residents. The
attempt by the municipality to solicit residents' views on
the need to
borrow over $13 million from the open market is a cover-up
because they
refuse to listen to residents' views.
About
$1, 1 trillion would purchase 183 one-tonne trucks at an
average cost of $6
billion each and 90 sedans going for averagely $3, 6
billion. Other items
they want residents to purchase for their luxury are
executive desks at
about $50 million, office chairs and refrigerators.
CHRA is
saddened by this trend at Town House where they
prioritise peripheral
matters ahead of substantial issues of refuse
collection, repair of burst
sewer and water pipes, water treatment and
supply, road repairs and the
plight of victims of Operation Murambatsvina
who continue to suffer, almost
a year after the demolitions and
displacements.
The
continued failure by the commission to organise fresh
elections in Harare is
clear testimony that they are only serving political
interests of the ruling
party and the government. More so, this is
unparalled propensity to spend on
non-key issues. CHRA reiterate that
elections to choose councillors and
mayor should be held urgently to return
Harare to its rightful status of
'Sunshine City'. This is the sure way to
have accountable and representative
governance.
Zim Daily
Thursday, April 13 2006 @ 12:05 AM BST
Contributed by:
correspondent
The opposition MDC will soon call on all
Zimbabweans to boycott
businesses and banks run by people linked to the
ruling Zanu PF party in a
move aimed at ratcheting pressure on President
Mugabe's inept
administration. The main opposition party is set to publish a
list of such
enterprises soon. Party sources told Zimdaily that "the MDC
need to publicly
identify the banks and businesses bankrolling the Zanu PF
machinery because
the party derived its dictatorship and authority from
those institutions
whose funds were being used to abuse
Zimbabweans."
Zimdaily heard the strategy is the brainchild
of the party's
shadow ministry of Home Affairs and the shadow Economic
Affairs portfolio.
The news have been received with great joy by long
suffering Zimbabweans. In
a snap survey carried out in the streets of
Harare, most people said they
believed in the MDC's new strategy to cripple
Zanu PF financially. A mother
of three who declined to be named said MDC's
plan for business boycotts was
the best idea that Zimbabweans, fed up with
"the illegitimate regime of
President Mugabe", could effectively implement
without bothering themselves
with street protests which potentially could
result in the death of
protesters.
State Security
minister this week threatened to use guns on
unarmed civilians if they
heeded calls for mass protests made by MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai. "Mass
protests will only succeed once the government and
its sidekicks have been
reduced to paupers," she said. "It's the money that
is financing this
regime. The MDC should now help desperate Zimbabweans by
compiling a
comprehensive list of businesses to be targeted. The people are
ready to
silence Zanu PF as long as the MDC carries this campaign to the
masses." The
mother, with her last born baby strapped to her back, told
Zimdaily that any
business needed money to function properly and Zanu PF
remained in authority
simply because its financial base had not been
confronted.
A man who only identified himself as Mishrod
said if the
government could make its people suffer economically, then
Zimbabweans
should retaliate. Chimuti Tongoona, 56, from Gokwe, said the
effectiveness
of that strategy depended on the MDC's information
dissemination and
Zimbabweans' seriousness. "There are people who are
getting rich through
dubious means," he said. "This idea has come out as a
result of the
prevailing economic hardships. Out of that suffering, people
are desperate
for ideas that can save them."
Shadreck
Maruma, 32, of Hatcliffe, said the MDC's call was
dangerous as it sought to
destroy other people's lives. He said the only
solution to Zimbabwe's
economic hardships was through dialogue between the
MDC and Zanu PF. "The
economic hardships we face are complex," he said. "The
best way to get out
of the crisis is through peaceful discussions where
differences are
resolved. "You can't punish your children by refusing them
the right to buy
things they want from some businesses because they are run
by Zanu PF
supporters."
A 62 year old businessman from Borrowdale, said
boycotting
businesses and withdrawing money from banks run by Zanu PF
officials was the
best the MDC could have thought of, given the readiness of
the police and
army when dealing with demonstrators. "That boycott call is
one thing that
can counter the current Zanu PF strength," he said. "I
appreciate the MDC's
new approach because the government has a tradition of
using force to cow
people into submission. But Zanu PF and its diehard
businessmen will have no
control over people withdrawing their money from
their banks. Those banks
will collapse within months if people just make the
sacrifice."
Stephen Mazorodze, 26, of Gutu in Masvingo, said
it was useless
for Zimbabweans to continue supporting institutions that
oiled human rights
abuses, dictatorship, rape, torture and starvation of
opposition supporters.
He said it was better for Zimbabweans to suffer once
and for all and enjoy
the rest of their economic life. "At least the boycott
will bring the
much-needed change. Some of these people are getting richer
and richer
through our suffering. We put our money in their banks and they
take that
money to support Zanu PF projects which have not benefited
us."
Zim Daily
Thursday, April 13 2006 @ 12:01 AM
BST
Contributed by: correspondent
By Jack
Zaba
For a long time now many of the struggling people of our
embattled country have been calling for a Zimbabwean Prometheus who would
dare to steal the Zanu PF gods' fire and bring the flame of peace and
prosperity to the nation. Many have called for one man who has already
established his political base, Morgan Tsvangirai, to transform himself into
a real hero of the people by leading the people en masse, to drive away a
certain octogenarian who still fools himself that he is the messiah of the
people, out of the State House.
Zimbabwe is an erudite
nation, and its people are really
conscious of their plight. They know who
is behind the lack of food, who
causes them to be flogged and harangued by
certain uniformed men who call
themselves a professional police force. Our
people are aware of who the
author of our current predicament is. The
citizens of this country are
always ready to proffer solutions that lead to
the amelioration of our
pathetic state of affairs.
So
this country is an embodiment of virtue and valour. After
having concurred
that the present occupant of the presidential seat and his
so-called two
thirds majority rigged themselves into power, they gave the
"losers" time to
coalesce and re-strategise. It has been exactly a year now
years now since
the historic rigging of parliamentary election by our dear
"comrades" in
Zanu PF and four years since the rigging of that presidential
poll. The
presidential election was the people's hope of ending oligarchy,
tyranny or
dictatorship, but it failed dismally.
The people's
aspirations fizzled into thin air. The country
plunged further into more
severe manifestations of dictatorship stemming
from the birth of obnoxious
pieces of legislation like the Public Order and
Security Act and the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act,
Criminal Codification and
Reform and the so-called 17th Amendment. The
people faced retribution for
daring to give Tsvangirai and his deputies more
than a million votes. Now
the citizenry has realised that elections only
serve to give plastic
legitimacy to a dictator's stolen power.
There is now need to
refocus and devise more sophisticated but
effective means of dealing with
our dictator. The people's minds were then
filled with the need for
collective action in the form of civil
disobedience, mass protests or
general confrontation with President Mugabe.
They suggested Tsvangirai
should lead the pack and give his blessing to mass
action at the just ended
congress. So I have heard that it is now becoming a
reality that mass action
is imminent. But I am sceptical of the sincerity of
those who are calling
for the mass action. Are they ready to face the
vicious bull called Mugabe?
Wasn't it a call from people who just think they
will be spectators as the
gravy train glides through?
Do they know what mass action
really entails, especially when
dealing with ruthless dictators like our own
President? In short, the issue
of civil unrest within a dictatorship entails
a people's preparedness to
lose limb or life. The impetus to any mass
uprising is the general readiness
to lose what one has jobs, cars, wives,
husbands, wealth, education in
pursuit of freedom which is valuable as the
sole way to live prosperously.
As long as you dread the sight of the
sophisticated armoury of this regime
being exhibited by our morally
prostituted police force, then you are not
ready.
There
is a need for mass action and the numbers are there, as
well as the grand
strategies, but I don't know if our people, including the
police and
soldiers, are ready to lose their jobs now in search of a better
future
tomorrow. Are the hungry students in our tertiary institutions ready
to lose
or temporarily stop their education now and deal with the greatest
impediment to prosperity Mugabe? This is the psyche that needs to engulf the
people, that of self-sacrifice now, in trying to save the future and
posterity.
If we believe Tsvangirai is the man, then get
prepared to be
with him when he chooses first to sacrifice his life by
calling for mass
action. It should be a known fact that life would be lost,
as much as it was
lost during the liberation war, but that is no excuse for
one to avoid being
part of the historical fight against Mugabe's tyranny. It
happened in
Indonesia and Suharto was dumped.
It happened
when Venezuelans protested with remarkable success.
Even on our own
continent Ravalomanana and his determined supporters deposed
Ratsiraka. So
mass action is a possible solution, but it only needs the
right ingredient a
determined people. Those who despise fear, those who take
fear as an
inexcusable infirmity should lead the struggle. The leadership
can be there
but without the people it will be a typical case of fish out of
water. The
people are the vital cog of any revolution, as they fight for the
general
good. We need a well-calculated move. Let us give Tsvangirai et al
more time
to map out efficacious strategies. Just be ready to be there when
the time
comes, it's an all-inclusive encounter. I will be there too.
The Chronicle
Business
Reporter
Government is considering a third supplementary budget in four
years to
rescue ministries battling to sustain operations due to high
inflation,
which has severely reduced the purchasing power of initial fiscal
allocations, a senior Government official said yesterday.
The
official said consultations were still ongoing, but said the
supplementary
budget would only address urgent capital requirements.
"A supplementary
budget will presented in June or July this year but this is
subject to
approval from key economic stakeholders," said the official who
preferred
anonymity.
He said ministries have been lobbying the Ministry of Finance for
additional
fund, saying high inflation that has eroded the purchasing power
of
allocated funds in the 2006 budget.
"Many Government departments are
failing to pay for services rendered
because funds allocated to them have
been eroded by inflation," said the
official.
The Minister of Finance, Dr
Herbert Murerwa, presented the 2006 a $123, 9
trillion national budget for
in December last year when inflation was at
585,8 percent. It has since
increased to 913, 6 percent in March and is
projected to pass the 1000
percent mark by April, affecting Government's
expenditure targets and fiscal
planning.
Figures releases by the Central Statistical Office last week show
that the
cost of goods and services had increased by more than five times
between
December and March.
"Already, the majority of civil servants are
lobbying for salary adjustments
because their earnings continue to be eroded
by inflation, a factor that
really calls for immediate allocation for
additional funds from the
Treasury," said the official.
In the 2006
budget the income tax threshold was increased from $1,5 million
per month to
$7 million a month but such figures are far beyond the poverty
datum line
now at $35 million.
Zimbabwe has had a supplementary budget every year since
2000, except for
2004.
Analysts said the supplementary budget was
unavoidable given the rise in
inflation between January and March this
year.
"Given the problems facing key ministries in servicing debts and other
payments, it is apparent that the Government will have to have a
supplementary budget," said Mr Farayi Dyirakumunda of Interfin
Securities.
He said inflationary pressures were wrecked havoc with
ministerial budgets,
with long term almost impossible.
A lecturer in the
Faculty of Commerce at the National University of Science
and Technology, Mr
Oscar Chiwira, said it was not suprising that ministries
had exhausted
funds.
"A supplementary budget is inevitable because Zimbabwe is experiencing
a
hyperinflationary climate that has resulted in some ministries struggling
to
pay for crucial services," he said.
Mr Chiwira said that the
hyperinflationary climate had resulted in the
ministries of Education as
well as Health commercialising services to raise
additional cash.
"The
recent increases in educational fees and health fees is an indication
that
ministries are now commercialising services to generate funds needed in
sustaining operationss," he said.
Mr Chiwira urged Government to shift
from an annual budget system to a
quarterly budget system until inflation
becomes manageable.
"A quarterly budgeting system is required so that the
Government will review
its fiscal policy on the basis of inflation," he
said.
zimbabwejournalists.com
Nkomo follows Blessing Chebundo
in deserting the Arthur
Mutambara-led MDC.
By a
Correspondent
REALISING that he probably had backed the wrong
horse, former
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) chief executive,
Samuel Sipepa
Nkomo, has resigned as deputy national director of elections
in the Arthur
Mutambara-led MDC camp and defected to the stronger and
popular camp led by
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Nkomo becomes the second
member of the national executive of the group
to cross the floor this week
after Kwekwe MP Blessing Chebundo's
resignation. Paul Themba Nyathi, the
Mutambara faction spokesman, confirmed
Nkomo, who deputised Chebundo, had
also resigned. "Sipepa Nkomo has
resigned. Like Mr Chebundo, he only stated
that he was resigning for
"personal reasons". "We wish them good luck. Like
we have always said, the
struggle is not a stroll in the park. Those who
have difficulties stomaching
the pressures of the struggle will opt out but
we will not stop them. We
respect their decision." Nkomo lost his job as CEO
at the ANZ, publishers of
the banned Daily News and The Daily News on
Sunday, after the chose to stand
for senatorial elections under the Welshman
Ncube camp. He lost to a Zanu PF
candidate. Nkomo is currently awaiting
trial for corruption and fraud crimes
he committed a few years ago while he
was head of the Mining Industry
Pensions Fund (MIPF). He is expected back in
court on 10 July.
Many more resignations are expected from the
Mutambara faction. In the
UK, MDC executive leaders from the Mutambara camp
have already announced
they are quitting. Mutambara's national chairman,
Gift Chimanikire, who was
elbowed out of the race for the presidency of the
faction to pave way for
Mutambara, is also reported to be contemplating
leaving the camp.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper quotes
Nyathi as saying: "We
just hear rumours that he is contemplating doing that
(crossing the floor)
but there is nothing official."He said the defections
were not a reflection
that the faction was "losing grip" of its membership
but a development that
is to be expected in any struggle. ''Even in Zapu
such things happened. It
is nice to work together but such (decisions) are
not pre-determined. People
make their own decisions."
"Part of
the problem could be to do with the bubble on the figures
game being played
by the other group but that bubble will eventually burst,"
said Nyathi in
apparent reference to the Tsvangirai's well-attended rallies
over the
weekend.Tsvangirai is expected to roll out his party's programme of
mass
protests against continued Zanu PF rule in the country soon.
The Mercury
April
13, 2006
By Basildon Peta
Harare: The Zimbabwe
government yesterday hinted at ordering the
police and army to shoot
citizens who heeded calls by opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai to join
mass protests aimed at forcing president Robert
Mugabe to institute
political reforms.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is
also in charge of the
spy agency the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), reminded Zimbabweans
that the ruling Zanu-PF party had "shed blood
before" to liberate the
country from colonialism and would not hesitate to
do so again to maintain
its grip on power.
Mutasa's remarks
come soon after Mugabe himself vowed to kill
Tsvangirai, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) President, if
Tsvangirai proceeded with plans for
mass action.
But a defiant Tsvangirai said he was prepared to
die to free Zimbabwe
from Mugabe's dictatorship.
"All dictators
die. Mugabe might of course kill me first, but he will
find me waiting for
him in heaven," Tsvangirai said.
Apparently, the Zimbabwe
government has been rattled by the good
attendances at Tsvangirai's rallies
since he held a congress of his faction
last month. The congress itself was
attended by 16 000 delegates.
Tsvangirai wants to use the protests
to force Mugabe to institute
political reforms, including the re-writing of
a new democratic
constitution, before free and fair elections are held. -
Mercury Foreign
Service
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 04/13/2006 11:32:06
ZIMBABWE'S Information Minister
Tichaona Jokonya and the country's media
hangman Tafataona Mahoso have
petitioned the High Court to dismiss with
costs The Daily News' application
to be deemed registered.
In court papers filed this week, Jokonya and
Mahoso argued that the court
does not have jurisdiction over the
matter.
Jokonya and Mahoso are arguing that the MIC and the Information
Minister are
the ones vested with powers to deal with the registration of
newspapers.
Jokonya said after the High Court ruled that the Media and
Information
Commission (MIC) must be recused from the Daily News
application, he at one
time thought of setting a special board but was
advised the Attorney General's
office that he did not have powers to do so
under the governing and
restrictive Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA).
Jokonya added that if he is to follow the judgment,
the act should first be
amended.
The submissions by the two is in
response to an application in the High
Court in which the acting ANZ chief
executive officer John Gambanga said the
commission was in violation of
Section 66 of the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa) which stipulates that the MIC must deal
with an application within a
month of its submission. Gambanga also cited
Section 8 of Statutory
Instrument 169 (c) of 2002 that stipulates that the
MIC should give written
reasons for either granting or refusing the
application.
However,
Jokonya said the MIC had done nothing wrong in dealing with the
Daily News
application and would not dissolve it.
"I submit that I still retain
confidence in the entire membership of the MIC
and therefore, I do not wish
to remove it. I have no reason to invoke
provisions of section 40 (3) of
Aippa as no member of the MIC has done
anything in respect of this matter,"
said Jokonya.
Mahoso added that his commission had not acted "unlawfully"
or
"unreasonably" and called for the ANZ case to be dismissed.
Said
Mahoso: "I am realiably advised that the relief sought by the applicant
is
not competent as it seeks to persuade this hounorable court to exercise
administrative functions that are otherwise the privy of the
respondents.
"I am further advised that a competent prayer would have
been a prayer that
is in line with section 4 of the Administrative Justice
Act. As it stands
the MIC did not act unlawfully, unreasonably nor did it
fail to supply its
reasons for not acting. It must be dismissed with
costs."